Conquer Club University(CCU)
CCU has 44 territories, two of which are "dead space" (not part of any bonus) and it contains 7 bonus regions. This makes a neutral free 4 -player game, but 2, 3, 6 and 7 player games don't have many more of them. A 14 territory start makes for a good, Classic-style two player game, and I recommend both flat rate and escalating multiplayer games. Team games are similar to the Classic map, so what works there works here. Going to University is a good way to enhance your Conquer Club skills! Features Dead Space Spoils Flat rate and no spoils The small bonuses are easily the most popular, which means it can be difficult to take Athletics while someone holds Housing, and vice versa. Student Services is a good start, and it isn't too difficult to branch out into Administration, since the other small bonuses are far away. If you are holding a bonus, don't stack anything on the Quad unless you plan on breaking someone else. You opponents will appreciate the ability to kill each other (and you should appreciate it too!), and staying within your region keeps your border count down. There's nothing worse than a big stack of green armies on the Quad which defend the blue player when you want to assault him. Escalating There are three dead ends which allow for easy blocks, and almost every bonus region has a bottleneck. Fraternity House and Sorority House are both adjacent to one territory, and so is Archives. The Quad seems like a very valuable, centralized location, but in reality you're better off holding the bottleneck for a region (Commons, Circulation, History, Cafeteria, Physics, Gymnasium) because it has more access to the region (ie. if you hold the Quad, you'll need something inside each region anyways, because there is only one way in from the centre, and odds are another player will block it). The Registrar is another useful territory to hold, because it can reach most of Administration, and Engineering comes in handy during a long, well blocked game. 5-7 players is best. 8 leaves too few territories to start (and too many neutrals), and 4 or fewer gives all players nearly free access to each other. Expect games to last 8-12 rounds. Fog and Terminator are nice. 1v1 The centralized nature of the Quad makes for three drastically different game types: if you start with the Quad, you can break almost any bonus, and have a better chance to take your own; if your opponent has it, they can do the same; if it's neutral, then it becomes much more difficult to break a bonus. You can capitalize on this early by fighting your opponent for a bonus, but it may also help to turn the tide in the middle and end game if you seize an isolated region by assaulting neutrals. Although most other game types are very similar to Classic (and you could play CCU in the same way), the map is not as uniformly connected as Classic is. This means there are some areas with a lot of connections (Registrar touches six others; the Quad and most adjacent territories are highly connected), and there are ares with very few (Fraternity/Sorority Houses, Computer Science/Engineering/Chemistry). The neutrals then break these areas up, so there will usually be a few areas occupied by you and your opponent, and surrounded by neutrals. This means you can favour a distribution-style assault, and fight to win each isolated area, while keeping some armies in the highly connected areas, and this way maintain a territory advantage. Team games Most team games play just like a Classic game, with one exception: a 4 player doubles game lets everyone start with 11 territories, so each player is just one territory away from an extra army. If you are lucky enough to start, it can be advantageous (in a no spoil/escalating game) to give your partner your armies, and have them conquer a couple regions. The effect is two-fold: they will be able to choose who they assault (and hence reduce below 12 again any opponent who has gained ground) and they will probably have more than 12 territories by the end of their turn, forcing your opponents to take two to knock them back down. Distribution-style assaults (see: 2 Player guide) can be especially devastating with this technique. Most bonuses are easier to defend from within the region, so passing armies to your teammate to defend you will probably leave you vulnerable. It is still useful to hold the Quad and launch assaults from there (because it can break almost any bonus and is easily fortified), but it's difficult to protect a bonus from there.